I wonder if anyone here might have run into this before? I've tried everything that Google search results offer to me, no luck yet. Anyone have any ideas about this one?

Problem:
- Logging into remote desktop of work PC using an RDP client.
- Local client is an RDP program running on either Mac ("Microsoft Remote Desktop") or Windows ("MSTSC.EXE").
- Remote work PC is running Windows 10.
- Successfully connect to work PC from RDP Client.
- Open a Finder or Explorer window on your local client PC, right click on a text file, and press COPY.
- Open an Explorer window on the work PC's remote desktop.
- Right click on the remote PC's explorer window and try to press PASTE
- Can't press PASTE because it's grayed out.
- The reverse also doesn't work (copy a file FROM the remote desktop TO the local PC, this also fails the same way).
- This USED TO work fine for this PC, and then corp tightened up security on this machine. So it might be due to some kind of Group Policy setting or some other kind of security on the remote work PC. For all of the other tightening that they did on this machine, I have been able to work around all of it by finding the correct registry entries and overwriting those whenever they changed. Since my account is still Local Admin for the thing, I can still do pretty much anything I want, I just haven't found the specific local setting for this one yet.

Other diagnostic points:
- Copying and pasting TEXT always works fine between the local and remote PC, the issue is only when doing it with FILES.
- Copying and pasting files on the SAME computer works as expected in both the local and remote environments.
- The same steps work fine when connecting to other remote desktops, such as connecting to the remote desktop of another different windows computer, both home and work computers. This problem is specific to this single work computer.
- The issue is inexplicably intermittent. Sometimes pasting files to the computer WORKS on rare occasions. The rare occasions when it works, there doesn't seem to be an obvious reason why.
- I have no problem accessing the remote work PC's hard drive across the network (sharing its C drive and connecting to \\pcname\sharename). I can copy and paste files that way just fine. So that's a workaround I have. It's just annoying that I can't copy/paste files directly in the RDP session like I used to.

It is not unique to a specific user account:
- Logged in to different account on the remote work PC (logged into .\LocalAdmin on the work pc instead of corp\afabris on the work pc).
- Both of those accounts are called out specifically in the Remote access settings as being allowed to connect (and they do connect).
- Both of those accounts are in the local machine administrators group anyway.
- Did not fix the issue.

It is not unique to the RDP client:
- Logged in via a different RDP client (logged in from Windows MonkeyFlip MSTSC instead of from my Mac "Microsoft Remote Desktop")
- Did not fix the issue.

It doesn't matter if I log into the computer by hand first.
- Tried to log in to the work computer physically first.
- THEN try to RDP into the computer.
- Did not fix the issue.

Checked the remote desktop CLIENT settings for the connection:
- Make sure the "redirect clipboard" setting is active (it is).
- Go into the "Folders" settings screen.
- Tick the tickybox "Redirect Folders"
- Also tried: Adding mac hard disk ("/") to the list of redirected folders.
- (Settings above are Mac version, there are similar settings in Windows MSTSC.)
- Did not fix the issue.

Lots of internet sites say to kill and restart the remote desktop clipboard service:
- From an administrator command prompt on the remote work PC:
TASKKILL /IM Rdpclip.exe
TASKKILL /IM Rdpclip.exe
rdpclip.exe
- Did not fix the issue.

Group policy settings:
GPEDIT.MSC
Computer Configuration
Administrative Templates
Windows Components
Remote Desktop Services
Remote Desktop Session Host
Device and Resource Redirection
"Do not allow Clipboard redirection” - Set to Disabled
"Do not allow drive redirection" - Set to Disabled
- Did not fix the issue.

Tried this: http://woshub.com/cant-copy-paste-via-remote-desktop-rdp-clipboard/
reg add “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server” /v “DisableClipboardRedirection” /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
reg add “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server” /v “DisableDriveRedirection” /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
(Note: the "Terminal Server" section of the registry did not exist at first. Maybe the woshub.com web site got it wrong?)
- Did not fix the issue.

Tried this: http://woshub.com/cant-copy-paste-via-remote-desktop-rdp-clipboard/
Check the PERMISSIONS on C:\windows\system32\rdpclip.exe
- Did not fix the issue. (was already set correctly)

Tried this: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubl...on-isnt-working
Make sure the Network Providers entry has at least the default entries:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\NetworkProvider\Order\ProviderOrder
Default entries: RDPNP, LanmanWorkstation, web client
- Did not fix the issue. (was already set correctly)

Tried this: https://support.macincloud.com/support/s...cincloud-server
In the remote desktop CLIENT settings for the Mac version of the app:
Open Microsoft Remote Desktop.
From the main menu, click on "Microsoft Remote Desktop" > "Preferences".
Uncheck "Use Mac shortcuts for copy, cut, paste and select all, undo and find"
- Did not fix the issue.

In the remote desktop CLIENT settings for the Mac version of the app:
Open Microsoft Remote Desktop.
From the main menu, click on "Microsoft Remote Desktop" > "Preferences".
"If folder redirection is enabled for RDP files or managed resources, redirect:"
(Mac Hard disk) i.e., "/"
- Did not fix the issue.

I would guess it's a Group Policy, no idea about specifics

Have you tried drag & drop? I've found this works between the local and remote windows even when copy & paste doesn't.

Thanks so much for those suggestions.

Tahir: It indeed might be a group policy, but my googling has not yet turned up its name. I have seen the group policy setting to block the remote clipboard entirely, but I'm not affected by that, since I can cut and paste text just fine.

Larry: Dragging and dropping files used to work in the olden days of RDP, but it's been years since I've been able to use that. I don't know why they removed it, but yeah, I remember it used to be very convenient. In any case, nowadays drag/drop doesn't work between local and remote, even when I'm connecting to computers where copying and pasting works. For example, I connect to some other remote computer, one which doesn't have the problem. I can right-click and copy a file from my local computer and paste it to the remote RDP PC just fine, but I can't drag and drop the file there.

I think I may have found the solution. I'm not entirely sure, but, it seems to be working so far and it's survived a couple of reboots. The intermittent nature of the issue makes it tough to be certain until after I've lived with it for a while.



If this really is my solution, it's odd to me though, for these reasons:

- Those registry entries didn't exist at all on the computer to begin with. I had to add them.

- The setting is called "Terminal Server Client". Also all the web sites which talk about those settings also say that it must be on the client PC. In this case, client means the local PC on which you're running MSTSC. But in my case, I added those settings to the SERVER computer, i.e., the one running remote desktop services, i.e., the remote work PC.

Only time will tell if this truly solves the problem in the long term.

I found a thread that lists blocking some ports will disable file copying. I don't know if this is correct, but it could be worth looking at.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/For...rum=winserverTS

Attack, thanks for that suggestion of making sure those ports were open. The thing is, file and printer sharing already works on this machine, so those ports already were open. I double checked in WF.MSC and made sure they were enabled for both Private networks and Domain networks (the network it's active on is a private network). After a reboot, still didn't fix the issue.

As for the registry entries I listed above as "working" - I seem to have been wrong. The problem returned today, despite those registry entries.

So, still stumped by this one.

This is a big PITA with RDP, we spent a very long time getting it to work reliably but the techie that did it for us is no longer with us. Been years since I've been able to print to a local printer but that's a whole nother kettle of fish.

I'm pretty sure the registry key for DisableDriveRedirection only prevents the client's drives appearing on the machine you are RDPing to.

Maybe using that feature somewhat solves your problem of transferring files? Not as easy as copy/pasting though.

Local Resources tab -> Local devices and resources -> More

Thanks, Shonky. Yes, you'd think that the drive redirection feature of RDP is separate from the copy/paste feature. And in fact, simply connecting to a shared hard drive works fine for me, so I have that in place as my functioning workaround.

But I don't know what RDP is actually doing "under the hood" when you copy/paste a file. My symptom is that copy/paste of text works, and it only fails on copy/paste of files, so clearly, it's doing something different for files. Is it creating a brief fileshare or drive redirection to get the job done? Dunno.